Gems of hip hop knowledge
Montes/Montanhas in Latin American Hip Hop
From the mysterious mountains of Latin America, some compelling gems arise in hip-hop lyrics. The rap crew, Crack Family from Bogotá, Colombia rhymes in their hit "Medicina" (which has some very cool images of Colombian mountains in the music video): "Marihuana (Bazuca), get a little higher / Los rituales del monte, cura pa' las almas / Give it fire (Montes), como el Himalaya / Fumigando las...
Hip Hop and/as Martial Art
In my fieldwork in Japan, my man Jase Ng took me to see the "Hip Hop City" Mural in Kawasaki--the diverse working class city on the outskirts of Tokyo. There at the left of this epic monument to hip hop in Japan, the artist Dragon76 has connected hip hop to his own national roots -- breaking and/as a martial art! Just as hip hop's polycultural ethos has incorporated martial arts into its very...
RIP RapMoz icon, Azagaia
The name of our recently departed brother, the Mozambican MC, Azagaia, means "spear" -- a reference to his anticolonial cultural politics and his "words as weapons" artistic ethos. CIPHER Team member, Janne Rantala, describes his views in terms of Frantz Fanon's decolonial artist figure in the image here. Now... check the CIPHER METHOD's connection between Mozambican beatmaker, Imbelogic's...
‘Mo Salah’ lyrics
In early January 2018, the first well-known hip hop reference to footballer Mo Salah appeared. It quickly spread across the globe, with artist in other countries using the footballer as a reference point for excellence – most of them comparing themselves to Mo Salah in their own fields. This data visualisation shows some of the major references, and how referencing Mo Salah travels...
0phelia – ‘The Enlightenment of the Tree’
In this video 0phelia spits an acapella rap verse in her native language Gaelige, demonstrating the hip-hop wisdom that can be found in nature.
Alienness (MZK) – The Bronxstyle
Bboy Alienness refocused a generation through this seminal dance text of the 2000s. Inspiring a new old school, Alienness pushed the emphasis from power moves back to movement with feeling and groove, teaching: "I can teach a chihuahua to stand on one hand but I can't teach that dog to catch a groove." -Jase Ng
Little Simz – ‘Boss’
In 'Boss', Simz describes her rise to the top and asserts herself as a formidable artist in a predominantly male sphere. Inverting the masculinist language of the song title, she issues a warning shot: "I'm a boss in a fucking dress." -Warrick Moses https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nobyMYOD5Bg
Spekulativ Fiktion – ‘Google’
Spek details the Local Geological Record that tracks the first animal to walk on land (and it's in Ireland, where CIPHER is based!). Dropping some intensely local knowledge, he highlights the importance of heritage: "its feckin’ timeless, like the Tetrapod Footprints on Valentia Island" -Griff Rollefson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqAX-riCwCQ